Politics of partnership in UK and Scotland: understanding governance in obesity policy

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Abstract

Background
Partnerships are now established as a dominant governance tool in global and
public health. In the UK, successive governments have viewed partnership with
the food industry as a legitimate and effective tool in obesity policy. This model
of governance appeals to the notion of decision making between public and
private actors as interactive and collaborative. However, while this governance
approach is framed as a more open and accommodative form of policy making
to state-centric authority, empirical research of partnerships with unhealthy
commodity industries is surprisingly limited in both political science and public
health literatures. Taking this gap in the theoretical and empirical literature as
the starting point, this thesis set out to explore the ‘black box’ of partnerships
tasked with encouraging food industry self-regulation to address obesity policy
concerns in England and Scotland between 2010 – 2015.
Methods
The thesis is based on an analysis of documents released under the Freedom
of Information Act, partnership documents (e.g. steering group minutes),
relevant policy statements, and 50 qualitative interviews with individuals
involved in public health debates. Interviews include UK and Scottish policy
makers that had experience of partnerships in food policy, in addition to
individuals involved in advocacy, food industry representatives, and academic
researchers. It adopts a practice-based interpretive framework that understands
governance as sets of rules and procedures, using the analytical frameworks of
public accountability, multi-level and network governance to explore decision
making in partnership.
Results
The thesis is divided into four empirical chapters that explore governance using
various combinations of this analytical framework. Chapters 1, 2, 3 develop this
approach in England, and Chapter 4 considers partnerships in Scotland.
Chapter 1 examines the operationalization of partnership at the UK level,
making the case that policy statements framed this mode of governance as
increasing the problem-solving capacity of government. Chapter 2 draws on an
empirical case study of accountability practices, and considers how a lack of
formal mechanisms of accountability seemed to create opportunities for
commercial sector actors to circumvent being held to account within partnership
arrangements. Chapter 3 extends the focus to decision-making processes in
partnership, illustrating the tension between collaborative modes of governance
and the political strategies of food industry actors. Chapter 4 then explores
partnership arrangements in Scotland, combining an analytical focus on
accountability, multi-level and network governance to consider how policy
divergence from partnership arrangements at the UK level was constrained
through limits to collaboration between the Scottish government and food
industry actors.
Conclusion
The findings problematise the suggestion that partnership arrangements
improve the governance and policy effectiveness of interventions to address
diet-related ill health. This research draws upon contemporary theories of
governance, in combination with a wide range of empirical data, to highlight how
commercial sector actors exercise policy influence in partnership arrangements.
In contrast with a tendency within public health studies to assume a conflict
between the interests of commercial sector actors and public health aims, this
research makes a distinctive contribution in exploring the micro-political
decisions that constitute such tensions.